


Don't Take This Sinner From Me

by unburnttkhaleesi



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, but i got an need to write it, idk what this is man, mentions of rape and noncon, mentions of twd characters, zombie apocalyspe au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-17 05:19:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13652229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unburnttkhaleesi/pseuds/unburnttkhaleesi
Summary: Kastle Zombie Apocalypse AUSome say the world ended with a flu bug gone bad, others blame the government and some swear they saw four horsemen raise from hell.To make it brief, Karen and Frank become apocalypse buddies after meeting for the first time in Jame Wesley's warehouse. Possible 3 shot





	1. End of the World as we know it

**Author's Note:**

> Blame the photo set I made.

When Karen first meets Frank Castle, they are both naked as the day they were born. Apparently, this man, James Wesley had been scouting them out. Frank Castle had the body, strength and endurance of a hero from Greek Mythos and Karen had the beauty, wisdom and a perfect symmetrical face as a Greek goddess. They were the perfect specimens, or so Wesley said, to start repopulating the human race.

They are both standing in a room with dim lights, a neatly made bed and soft music from a record player to soften the mood. Wesley stands before them, back turned as he concocted some sort of ‘aphrodisiac’ or so he called it to put herself and Mr. Castle in the mood since they were so unwilling.

She is pissed with herself for getting captured and put into this situation in the first place. When the world ended and the dead walked the earth, everything went to chaos. At first man feared the living dead and there insatiable hunger, but in the end, it was man who should be fearing man.

James Wesley was one of the men that the remaining human kind feared. Along with Wesley, there was the Cannibal: Wilson Fisk, the homicidal maniac: Jigsaw, aka Billy Russo and many more to name, but Wesley’s plan for new world order with the perfect human beings was up there in fear factor. He ordered his goons to find survivors and drag them to his hideout. It’s why she was here with a man that she read about in papers before the world ended. Frank Castle was a terrifying man, killing at least thirty-seven people in some sort revenge act. It’s why Wesley had his ankles shakled to the floor. 

Karen however was not bound to anything, because in his words. ‘What’ll she do? Nothing threatening about a secretary.’

What James Wesley doesn’t expect becomes the end of his twisted, fucked up plan. Her eyes are on a handgun he had placed on the bedside table that she is standing next to and in an instant it is her hand. Before she can realize it, she is firing seven shots into a man who was walking over toward her with a needle and once he slumps over she drops the gun and covers her mouth with a shaky sob.

“Well shit.”

She looks over to see Frank Castle now standing up, looking over Wesley’s dead body. “Put a bullet between his eyes.” He tells her and when she doesn’t move, he stalks over toward her and picks up the gun at her feet and fires an eighth shot to his head. “Disgusting motherfucker.” He spits as he begins to look through Wesley’s pockets for a key.

Karen finally becomes hyper aware about the fact that she is currently naked with a convicted criminal and attempts to cover the fact she is currently freaking out while trying to give herself some modesty. It’s as if this Frank Castle reads her mind and hands her the jacket that he had taken from Wesley’s body. She’s still shaking and hears him sigh as he walks behind her to drape the suit jacket around her shoulders. Karen can feel the stickiness left from the blood against her skin, but it was better than being so exposed. 

She doesn’t even process the fact that one of Wesley’s men heard the shots and he is now bounding into the room. Another gunshot pierces the air and Frank is suddenly dressing in his clothes. “Ma’am?” She looks up at him. “Ma’am, we gotta go.”

Karen is still shaking and meets Castle’s dark eyes as he hands her the handgun that she used to murder a man. “C’mon.” He growls, rifle in his hand. “Lady, we gotta move before more come.”

“Wh-what about the other people?”

The Punisher flattens and then shakes his head. “We are the only ones here, ma’am. We were a new batch. Right now, we gotta worry about ourselves.” 

She takes a breath and nods her head following him out of the room. She needs real clothes as soon as possible. It’s winter and she wouldn’t survive long like this. Lucky enough they find the supply room and they find suitable clothes. Karen is quick to put the warm gear on. The sweater isn’t the perfect fit, but it will do its job to keep her warm. She can’t find the clothes she came in, which breaks her heart a bit, but as long as she can still be comfortable. Karen glances over at the man who was with her. He of course is dressed the same way she is, in all greys in blacks. It helped blend into the snow and darkness of the city right now. He wordlessly hands her a grey knitted scarf. “Your hair.” He mutters, it may catch someone’s eye.” So she gives him a wordless nod and wraps the long piece of clothing around her neck and makes a makeshift hood. He then hands her something else. A holster for the gun and ammo. He makes a face at her confusion and invades her space to secure it around her waist and pressing the gun into its holder. 

Karen watches in amazement as he packs two knapsacks with the essentials. It’s when it hits her, the facts about him- Frank Castle. He would be the one who you would like by your side in a time like this. He hurriedly hands her a packed bag and then raises a brow. “You ready?” She nods and he steps out of the room, ready for any kind of firefight that may come their way.

 

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Ever since their first meeting at Wesleys, Karen hadn’t left Frank’s side. She finds out after a month of traveling out of New York, that he isn’t the monster that he was painted out to be. Some of the undead they come across he makes a point to stop and bury them because they were people at one point, ma’am. What truly stuns her is the fact that he allows her to stick along with him. There had been many times that she feared going to sleep because he may not be there when she woke up.  
They never talk much though, talking attracts the infected after all. But if she does hear its voice, it’s often praises after she takes down an infected person with a hard clap on her shoulder. He’s not gentle, doesn’t treat her like a china doll and expects her to carry as much weight as he does.

And Karen pulls her own weight, she always does.

Though they do get into a mini conversation while raiding a convenience store, she was the one that had the idea. Mostly because the apocalypse doesn’t stop for her menstrual cycle. So she stands in one of the isle, annoyed when she finds that there are no tampons, only pads. She is of course moody to begin with so that doesn’t help when she hears a gurgling from beyond the other isle. She listens to Frank grumble something from in the store, the ringing of his bowie knife finds her ears and then it is silent. The sound of boots in the snow come up behind her and it’s Frank. 

“Was stuck to the ice.” He told her. “Looks like their bodies freeze up in the winter, but this one could smell something, so was fighting its frozen self to munch on something.” Her cheeks heat up even though they shouldn’t. Eve’s curse was such a natural thing after all. “It must have smelled you and your situation there.” He gestures to the pack of pads in her hand. “You ready or not?”

Karen side eyed him and grunts as she stuffs the package into her bag. “Yeah, would be nice to have tampons though, I don’t feel like dealing with frozen blood against my area.” She huffs and Frank steps to her side, looking through the display. Apparently she wasn’t through enough because he stands up and hands her a box of tampons. Her brows raise even more when he produces a bag of chocolate truffles from his bag. “My wife, I swear she was a human possessed during her period. I had an emergency kit when the time came around. It was mostly full of chocolate and red wine.” He tells her. 

She gratefully accepts his gift, a hint of a smile playing on her lips as she opens up her backpack and adds the items Frank gave to her. “Thank you.” She tells him gratefully and she becomes more surprised when he produces a bottle of midol from his pockets. Her head tilts and she laughs. “Are you real?” and Frank smiles. “I mean, you don’t look the type to be comfortable with this topic.”

He shrugs. “Makes ya badass ya know?”

Karen smirks at him, with a shake of her head and pushes his shoulder lightly. “You’re something, Castle.”

 

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

 

They run into some trouble on the border between New York and Pennsylvania. Men from some group raid their camp at night. They beat Frank until he is on the ground, unable to stand up and Karen’s wrists are bound and she is suspend from a tree. The men are hollaring and cackling as they rip at her shirt and she panics. She made it clear that she wasn’t helpless in anyway, but now she felt it. Her eyes are desperately looking for something, anything to get her out of this. But she all out screams in disgust when she feels a mouth on her neck and headbutts the guy. She sees stars and he snarls at her, pressing a knife at her collarbone. “You fucking bitch- I swear, I’ll gu-” Suddenly there is a knife between his eyes and the blade makes a sicking squelch sound as the knife gets twisted. Blood gurgles up from his throat and he is down. Karen’s eyes find Frank’s bearing into hers. He is wheezing, clutching onto his side and yells a war like cry when the man’s buddy charges at him. 

It’s like Frank became unhinged and took the man to the ground, smashing his fist into the man’s face. “You-” crack “Don’t” crack “Touch” crack “HER!”

Their attack’s face was unrecognizable, flat to the point where she is pretty sure there is brain matter leaking from his ears. Frank gets up off the ground and limps toward her, picking up the knife the man had held against her and cuts her down. “Frank.” She breathes as she takes the ropes off her hands. “Frank, s-sit down!” She shakes, her hands unstable as she tries to stable him. “You’re hurt.” Her voice breaks as he cups her face in his hand. He makes a rumble in his throat as a response and she pulls away from his to go through their first aid kit. “Frank, you need to sit down- you need to-”

“I couldn’t let those bastards take you from me.” His voice is weak, gravely and if she listened closely on the verge of tears. “I can’t lose you too.”

Her head is pounding, but she works through it. Karen approaches him with the first aid kit and pulls him down the the ground. Now she is the one who surprises him when she surges forward unto him and he winces as he wraps his arms around her tightly. “I’m not going anywhere, Frank, I swear I’ll never leave you.”


	2. He's Good and He's Bad  and He's All That I Got

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scrub-a-dub, kastle's in the tub

Frank and Karen get into their first disagreement in a suburb of Pennsylvania. All she wanted was a bath, a real bath. Karen couldn’t remember the last time she washed her hair with real shampoo and it wasn’t like she didn’t have the stuff, she took some from the last stop they made at the store. 

Snow is still on the ground as Karen stomps behind him. “We just need to find a home, boil some water and there, we have bath water.”

“And where the hell are we finding water, cause the amount we have we need for ourselves.” Frank points out and Karen rushes out in front of him and extents her arms, pretty much telling him to look around. He sees the snow and then laughs. “You want me to melt snow so you can wash your hair? What’s wrong with the dry shampoo?”

“What’s wrong?” She laughs. “Frank, I’m itchy and I stink. I swear I am going insane and my scalp currently hates me. Admit it, the idea sounds great.”

Frank shakes his head. “And too time consuming.”

Karen stands tall. “Seriously?!.” She quips. “We have all the time in the world, Francis.” He shakes his head and she sighs. “You know what, we need to find shelter anyway, sun's going down. So you do that, I’ll gather the snow and if this works? Your getting a bath too. You have an odor and it’s not a nice one.”

And he’ll be damned if she didn’t do exactly what she said she would do. They find a house with a claw tub, which makes her almost giddy and she does exactly what she planned on doing, getting two large pasta pots from the kitchen, filling it with snow and melting it down over a fire. Her excitement is almost too real as she goes into the bathroom and pours the pots into the basin before gathering more snow to melt down. He had to admit that the woman’s determination was admirable.

Though when she starts stripping off her clothes, his ears turn a deep red from embarrassment and she looks over her shoulder and sighs. “C’mon Castle, it’s not like you’ve haven’t seen me before.” He raises a brow and she smirks. “You smell, so strip and join me.” She unboxes a bar of soap and dunks it into the water as he takes off his layers. Karen doesn’t look up until the water sloshes around as he joins her. So she pulls her knees up against her chest and makes some space for him. She looks over at him, a smile playing at her lips when she saw what a mess his hair without his beanie. “We should trim some of that.” She nods to his mop of loose waves and he scoffs at her suggestion. “And tame that beard.”

“So quick to change me, Page.” He teases while cupping the steaming water in his hands and splashing it on his face. She leans forward and drags a wash cloth along his face, laughing at the face he makes, but her eyes light up when she dirt and grime washes off and she sees a Frank that she had met a few months ago. Her eyes travel along his face before settling on his chest, counting the number of scars on his chest and shoulders. Bullet holes, stab wounds and god knows what else, this was just his pectorals. “Wanna know how I go ‘em huh?” He asks and she nods. “I served in Iraq and in Afghanistan.” He begins. “This,” Her eyes find the the first circular mark. “This was from a kid, ‘bout sixteen who was protecting his family. All he knew was some soldier was coming in on his land and shot a bullet at me. My buddies, they wanted to take ‘em down. ‘Cause you shot a soldier of the us Marines.’ I convinced them not too, he was just a kid who was protecting his kid sister who was in a wheelchair and wasn’t housing some terrorist mastermind. That mastermind was in some cave, miles from the farm.” 

She listens intently as she washes the grime from her body. “What was it like, over there?”

Frank opens up his legs and suds up the soap in a lather while motioning for Karen to turn around. She listens and settles between his legs, she is surprised to feel Franks fingers through her hair. She holds back a satisfied moan as his digits massage at her scalp. “It was something. See we never went into any cities so most of the places we went to was untouched by man. Other times it was hell.” He tells her. “It was pure hell.” He rubs her blonde strands and tells her to close her eyes and uses a mug from the kitchen to gather clean water from the pot beside the tub. “There.” 

She scoots forward and turns back to face Frank. She mimics his actions, wanting him to turn around so she can get any possible living critters out of his hair. He pauses for a moment and turns, this time his back to her chest. He is ridged at first, but once she begins to work her fingers through his dark locks, he relaxes. “What about you, Page? What was life like before the shit hit the fan?”

“I was an ex-secretary and aspiring journalist.” She tells him. “I had an apartment in hell's kitchen, a distant lawyer maybe-boyfriend, who after I was taken by Wesley didn’t try to find me like he promised. I didn’t speak to my parents, so who knows if they were alive. Oh! I had a chia pet.” She smiles. “See, not as interesting as your life.”

Frank grunts as she rinses the soap from his hair. “Think your boyfriend is looking for you still?”

She scoffs. “No, if he is even still alive, his holier-than-art-thou ass is bedding Elektra.” Frank raises his brow. “Highschool girlfriend that he never got over and came back into his life when he changed his facebook status.” His chuckles as she works the rest of the suds out. “What?”

“Seems a shame.” He turns around to face her, his arms relaxing on either side of the tub. There is a smile on his face and she’s confused. “Jesus, Page if someone has a woman like you, they should seize the opportunity with two hands and never let go.” She can’t hide her blush from him and she didn’t expect him to say something like that. She expected him to call Matt stupid or some other name. “He’s a dumbass.” And there is was and he grins, relaxing even more in the tub. “What’ll you do if we ever run across him?”

This time she smiles. “Tell him to fuck off.” Frank’s eyes are on hers and her heart is thudding in her chest. “That I’m happy, and safe and better off traveling with you.” 

He is unreadable for a moment and then he taps his finger against the porcelain bathtub with a warm smile. “Water’s getting cold, we should get out before we catch a cold.” He tells her. “Besides, you said you wanted to clean up my look.”

She offers up a small laugh and the stands up, her skin quickly turning into goosebumps as she reaches for a towel. She doesn’t ignore the way that Frank looks at her and licks his lips, but at the same time she empowered in his gaze. It’s why she slowly, almost teasingly, wraps the long fluffy beach towel around her body. 

The bathroom is warm, so she dries herself off in there and Frank is following her lead. She is drying off her legs when she hears Frank get out of the tub. A comfortable silence falls between them as he grabs a hand towel and begins to dry her hair. “Castle, you are too good for this world.”

He chuckles behind her. “Don’t mistake me, Page. I just don’t wanna go losing you to a cold.” 

So she turns around grabs another hanging hand towel and does the same. “Well, I’d hate to lose you to that too.”

\------

Later, Frank discovers that the house they are squatting in has a wood burning stove and uses it to his advantage. They are both huddled up in front of it, Karen they are both clade in hoodies and sweatpants and Karen’s eyes are currently focused at the task at hand: trimming Frank Castle’s hair. She has the tip of her tongue between her lips as she slowly works at the dark locks. She’s on her knees as Frank sits pretzel style with a book in his hand as she sounds of the metal scissors along with the cracks and pops of the fire fill the room. 

When some of his hair starts falling into his open book, Frank brushes it off with a grin. “You’re pretty good at this.”

She hums. “I’ve had a lot of practice.” She tells him as she measures the amount she is cutting off between her two fingers. “I used to cut my brother’s hair.” She explains to him, her full concentration on what she was doing. “He always said our mom was too rough and the barber could never get it the way he liked it. So, he always put it on me.”

“You’ve never mentioned your brother before.” Frank’s tone is gentle, full of concern.

Karen pauses, stops what she is doing for moment and takes a deep breath. “That is because he isn’t with us anymore. He died when he was seventeen.”  
There is a beat and Frank reaches up and gently takes her wrist and pulls her down to face him. There are tears in her eyes. “Shh-shh, hey, it’s alright Karen.” She blinks away the tears and he cups her cheeks in his hands. “Listen, I know it is hard, but at least he isn’t livin’ in this world. That’s what gets me by with my family.”

She shakes her head while holding her pride, she’s not going to cry again. Though with the way Frank was looking at her just made the floodgates open. “It’s not-” She catches her breath. “It should have been me, I killed him, Frank. I was driving the car, the roads were so icy and I-I hadn’t been sleeping well-” She doesn’t expect what happens next, especially with someone like Frank. The only real time when their bodies physically touch is when they are huddled together for warmth. Now however, Frank’s arms are wrapped snugly around her waist and she is pulled against his chest. Frank Castle comforting her is the last thing she ever expected, but she takes it all in and allows herself to feel safe, to feel cared for.

“Karen, I’d be hypocritical if I told you to stop blaming yourself. Hell, I blame myself everyday for what happened to my family. But you gotta keep on going with your life, find something that you truly care about and live for that.” He softly tells her.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Karen pulls back only a bit to meet his eyes. “What about you, have you found something like that?”

Frank smiles soundly at her and gives her a nod. “Yeah.” He tells her with a whisper. He knows she’s not stupid and in the moment where she is searching his face, he suddenly feels a pang of self consciousness. However, when she smiles softly at him and presses her lips to his forehead, he knows she is okay with him and with whatever this is between them. “So, Page, you gonna finish what you started? Or are you gonna let me go walking around like one of them infected?”

Karen rolls her eyes playfully and scoffs. “So demanding.” She teases while getting up on her knees and finishing his hair.

For extra measure, she trims some wild hairs in his beard. Making him look less Tarzan and more ‘apocalypse chic’, as she so explains. When she is done, Frank takes the scissors from her and works on the uneven ends of her own hair. There was a few times when they had slept out doors when she would awake with such bad knots that she had to take his bowie knife to her hair. So she held her breath as he worked to make her hair match the length of her shortest piece, which was a little past her shoulders. She watched as the golden strands fell to the floor, mixing with his dark hair and when he is done, she runs her hands through her hair and presses a thank you kiss to his check. Karen smirks a bit at the pinkish tint at the top of his ears. 

Later they are curled up on an actual mattress that Frank dragged down from upstairs near the wood stove. She is pulled against his chest and his arms are wrapped around her waist. There is a smile on her face as she listens to his stories about his family spoken in a soft voice. Karen feels safe and warm for the first time in a long time. She doesn’t know what time she finally succumbed to sleep, but she does know that it was the best sleep she had gotten in a long time.

\---

Voices and the lack of warmth against her back wake her up the next morning. Frank is gun in hand and crouched down under the window when he notices her eyes are open. He motions for her to stay low and join him, so she grabs her pistol and hurrys toward him. 

The silence is deafening, but they can easily pick up on the voices wandering around the neighborhood. She picks up on two male voices, three females, and a voice belonging to a little girl. Karen gives Frank a hard look and he shakes his head no, but it was already too late. The voices were stronger now and there was someone telling the others to hush. The front door handle jiggles and Frank is already in front of Karen, and she hears the safety of his gun click off and when the door flies open, they are met with a small group of survivors almost frozen from the cold. 

The leader, a tall greying man with blue eyes holds his gun up, pointing it towards the two of them and even though she knows that Frank softened up a bit due to the little girl peeking in, he doesn’t back down. The leader looks at Frank with terror in his eyes, like he’d seen a ghost.

“Don’t want any trouble.” The man almost barks and Frank chuckles. “We smelled smoke, and one of our members tracked it down to this place. We just want a warm place to stay.”

Frank scoffs, keeping Karen behind him. “You made trouble when you forced yourself inside our spot.” Frank tells the man. “Last time someone told us that they didn’t want trouble, they tried putting us on their dinner menu. So you can understand our hesitation, right friend?”

“Cannibals?” The man asks. “Been there, you can trust us.”

Karen’s ears pick up a creak in the floor board and when she wheels around, she sees a filthy looking man with a crossbow. It doesn’t take her long to raise her own firearm up and aim it at the man. “Frank?” She calls and she can feel him growl behind her. “Don’t move, asshole.” She spits at the man.

“Are you serious?” She hears Frank bark from behind her. “Call your man down, then we can discuss our situation here.” The leader stands strong and Frank tenses. “Call your man down or she’ll take him down. I understand that Rambo over there has a crossbow, but my girl won’t hesitate to end him before he can get a shot out.”

The leader of the group sighs, mostly because the little girl outside is now crying from the cold air. “Fine,” He holsters his weapons and motions for the man in front of Karen to do the same. “Let’s talk your terms.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I haven't written twd characters in...three years? Idk I used to write bethyl like it was water. But like I said, haven't watched the show in a long time, it had a good standing up until season 4 and then I was done. But thanks to my lovely co-worker who tells me who will be Gimple's next victim.


End file.
